Just as the wise do not take a mirage to be water, nor an echo to be a voice, so the enlightened do not take the world to be real.

The more we understand the nature of our mind, the more we understand the nature of our world.

The three characteristics - impermanence, suffering, and non-self - are not philosophical concepts but aspects of experience to be directly observed.

For whom emptiness is possible, everything is possible. For whom emptiness is not possible, nothing is possible.

Whoever told you that practice and enlightenment are separate?

Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to listening to your inner voice.

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.

The more you suffer the deeper grows your character, and with the deepening of your character you read the more penetratingly into the secrets of life.

Compassion is not mere sentiment but a powerful force that can transform both ourselves and others.

The path of practice requires both faith and wisdom, both devotion and understanding.

The true person is not anyone in particular. But like the deep blue color of the limitless sky, it is everyone, everywhere in the world.

When we know the truth, we become people who don't have to think much, we become people with wisdom.

The mind is the forerunner of all things. Our present life is the result of our past thoughts, and our future life will be the result of our present thoughts.

Just as a mother would protect her only child with her life, even so let one cultivate a boundless love towards all beings.

The Dhamma unfolds in accordance with a definite sequence: faith, virtue, learning, generosity, wisdom, and insight.

When you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body-and-mind, you intuit dharma intimately.

The key to happiness is inner peace. The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions such as anger, attachment, fear and suspicion.

Both formerly and now, it is only suffering that I describe, and the cessation of suffering.

Whatever precious jewel there is in the heavenly worlds, there is nothing comparable to one who is awakened.

Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts.

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

The path to enlightenment is not a path at all. It is a realization that where you are is where you have always been.

The mind that sees its own nature becomes free from all extremes.

Silence is sometimes the best answer.

When things fall apart and we're on the verge of we know not what, the test of each of us is to stay on that brink and not concretize.

Personal experience is everything in Zen. No ideas are intelligible to those who have no backing of experience.

The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one's life.

Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again.

Zazen is not step-by-step meditation. Rather it is simply the easy and pleasant practice of a Buddha, the realization of the Buddha's Wisdom.

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

The supreme path is not to fabricate anything. The supreme meditation is not to be distracted.